Question

Charlie is a 40-year-old Caucasian male; he was an athlete in high school and exercised regularly in college. Since then, he has not eaten well or exercised on a regular basis; he gets motivated to lose weight and starts eating better and exercising, but when he attains his goal, he then goes back to old habits. There is a family history of diabetes and heart disease. At Charlie’s yearly check-up, his HbA1C, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels were all too high. A year later, the results are the same; his doctor prescribes metformin for Type II diabetes and statin for cholesterol and triglycerides; he also refers Charlie to a dietitian. In three months, his values are a little better, but Charlie is not following the dietitian’s advice. Metformin is causing Charlie’s weight loss, without his watching what he eats; he is encouraged to stay with the dietitian. If he does not change his lifestyle, his health could worsen, and require insulin; he is also at risk for a heart attack. Drug companies continually come out with new and better drugs; Charlie believes that when he needs to be concerned, there will probably be other treatments available.

What strategy or strategies of coping with illness are illustrated in this story? Should we hold Charlie accountable for his personal decisions that are contributing to his obesity and high cholesterol by asking him to pay more for health insurance to cover his prescriptions? Who ultimately decides which of the following scenarios occurs? Charlie suffering complications from his diabetes and obesity, losing his job and health insurance, and requiring inpatient hospital care; or, Charlie eating a healthy diet, exercising, losing weight, and following all of the recommendations of his dietitian

Answer 1

What strategy or strategies of coping with illness are illustrated in this story?

In the given example the strategy of Willful ignorance and Emotional eating is observed. In this example Charlie is demotivated after weight gain and started eating as per old habbits which is emotional eating to compensate for failure to maintain desiired body weight. The metformin medication taken by him for his diabetes is causing weight loss and charlie does not adhere to proper diet advice which is willful ignorance as in the short term he can see weight loss as a positive thing but cosidering his triglyceride and cholesterol levels elevated he has shall have sever risks of heart attack.

Should we hold Charlie accountable for his personal decisions that are contributing to his obesity and high cholesterol by asking him to pay more for health insurance to cover his prescriptions?

Charlie is certainly should be held accountable for the majority of parts due to his awareness that he does have a health problem which if he does not pay attention to can lead to fatal outcomes. Charlie is being referred to dietician and physicians and they are providing with guidance and medical care but adhereance to the treatment is entirely upto charlie. Charlie's lack of adheranca can be partly due to his failure to maintian healthy weight but majorty of it is ignorance and lack of seriousness from Charlie's part. He should be counselled at lenght of the personal decisions that are contributing to his obesity and high cholesterol and this also has financial impact over his insurance cover and prescriptions.

Who ultimately decides which of the following scenarios occurs? Charlie suffering complications from his diabetes and obesity, losing his job and health insurance, and requiring inpatient hospital care; or, Charlie eating a healthy diet, exercising, losing weight, and following all of the recommendations of his dietitian

At the end of the day staying fit and combating illness is a team effort which involves doctor, dieticians, insurance providers and Charlie himself. But Charlie is at the center of all this and it should be his decision to lead a healthy life by adherance to treatments, changing to healthy lifestyle, adopting a healthy diet and indulging in regular excercises sustained for a long time. It is responsibility of his physician to explain and consell him in detail bboth the paths i.e., obesity or healthy life and he should understand it to lead a fuller and happy life.